A panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a ruling by an Obama-appointed judge which found that the Phoenix Police Department (PPD) used “excessive force” dealing with violent protesters outside of a Donald Trump rally in 2017. The court’s opinion, issued last Thursday, found that U.S. District Court Judge John J. Tuchi incorrectly applied Fourth Amendment law to analyze claims from three protesters who were hit with projectiles.
Trump held a rally at the Phoenix Convention Center on August 22, 2017. A “Free Speech Zone” was set up for protesters, but the PPD was forced to intervene when they became violent. The opinion said the police used “tear gas, other chemical irritants, and flash-bang grenades” to deter the rioters.
After the protest, the radical leftist groups Poder in Action and Puente, which participated in the protest, along with several protesters, sued the City of Phoenix, accusing the police of excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, using violence to deprive the protesters of their free speech under the First Amendment, and viewpoint-discriminating against the protesters in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. They were represented by several prominent national law firms and the ACLU of Arizona.
Tuchi (pictured above) dismissed all of their claims except the Fourth Amendment excessive force charge by the three protesters hit by projectiles.
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